As some of you may already be aware, we have begun construction of a new forum as a rebirth of PHO and continuing on into future projects.
This forum is called Silph Co., and can be found by clicking the banner below. We are in the process of transferring some of our old resources, and the forum is open for posting. It will be sad to see PHO go, but we look forward to a bright future with Silph.
The forums here will be moved to an archive, and the url will redirect to the new site in the coming days/weeks.

In DevelopmentIf you're working on a hack this is where you want to post it.

I originally released this over at PHO (and more recently its successor, Silph Co.), and brought it to PokéCommunity due to several requests. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Alright, so this hack has been a long time in the making - having been worked on in little phases at a time, ever since I started learning about ROM hacking several years ago. Can’t really remember when (maybe 2010?).

It was put on hiatus several times due to life-stuff, and a couple of times I had even redone it from the beginning to find and remove any and all glitches/errors; I spent most of the time trying to figure out what the most minimalistic/efficient ways to implement everything were. Finally it's here, and as of the latest update nearly all of the features I had planned are in!

A change-log (different from the one here) has been kept documenting every single change that has been made (as well as dates-of editing, revisions and future ideas), for the sake of being able to quickly and easily pinpoint the cause of any errors. Choices in programs and how they were used have been carefully considered to avoid glitches. I am also trying to keep the save-data structure of the base ROM intact so that the regular Emerald's game saves will remain 'backwards/forwards' compatible (originally for testing scripts, graphics, etc.). This may change in the future, but it will be on a separate branch of this project.

Gameplay/Summary:

This is largely a "quality of life improvement" type of ROM hack, and does not alter the main storyline. It retains all the features the original Emerald has, but adds several things to the mix to make it more fulfilling and fun to play. Remember those days when myths like going to the Moon after a certain number of rocket launches/weeks were a thing? Several things like that will be accounted for, but with some changes/twists to how they are done. There is a moderate increase in difficulty (not really big, just aimed more towards veteran players), but there are rewards to compensate.

Only a select few newer-generation features have been added, as I wanted to keep this hack’s gameplay as faithful to the pre-2007 scene as possible while still adding a few of the newer games’ improvements in function. However, I might add in a few newer-generation Pokémon as special appearances/events sometime in the distant future. Apparently, expanding the PokéDex could cause the game to require its own exclusive saves only, but I think that will be OK as long as one does not plan on using this hack's saves with the regular Emerald (or vice-versa, I think). You may want to also keep in mind that if I happen to release an expanded-Dex version at some point, it may not be compatible with a save file from the regular version of this hack. Regardless, I will not stop updating the regular one and will still release it as well if that is the case. I would also try to find a way to make the original saves compatible with the new one.

Main Features:

Δ The PRNG glitch has been fixed by re-incorporating Emerald’s unused PRNG system

May need someone to check this one, just to fully confirm that it has been implemented properly

Δ All 386 Gen 1-3 Pokémon available

A New Evo Stone that evolves Trade-Evo Pokémon

More Roaming Legendaries, events, different sprites, etc.

Some events based on Day/Night/etc and/or game completion status

Pokémon from different PokéDex sections have their own battle music (based on region/availability in-game)

(i.e. Encounter a wild Pidgey somewhere, it will play Kanto’s Wild Battle theme; while Sentret has an exclusive Johto Wild Battle remix)

Δ Final Trainer Card is no longer Gold, but is ‘Platinum’ (well, not that literally, but it’s totally different than before)

Δ Upgraded EXP system: All Pokémon directly participating in a battle will receive full EXP, not half unless you use EXP Share to avoid having to switch them out. This allows you to have more options for how to train

Δ Steven can now be re-matched daily, and depending on when you face him, the Champion Battle theme might play (like in R/S)

Δ It is now possible to "turn off" the random calls on the PokéNav (except for the scripted ones in the story) by using Prof. Birch's machine in the lab

Δ The clock in the player's room now lets you know what the day of the week is before showing the time (there is a minor bug on the Playstation Portable, see below in the bugs section). Because of this, it can now help you know if the in-game day is correct when you want to do a special Event!

Δ The Safari Zone's expansion area is now split between nocturnal and diurnal Johto Pokémon (North and South, respectively)

Δ The bed in the player's room can now be used for sleeping, and possibly investigating a 'nightmare'

Δ Lamps on maps that have them now have a lit/glowing animation during night hours

Mt. Chimney's lava is also lit up at night

Δ Features 4 new RSE-style music remixes I made (3 from G/S/C), + 2 hidden Crystal-Version tracks from the original

Δ As another special feature for this ROM hack, Rayquaza, Mew and Jirachi have a 1/200 Shiny chance (if this one doesn't sit well with you guys, I can remove/modify it if enough of you ask me to)

Δ A few Legendaries' movesets are very slightly different, for event battle purposes. Levels on most of them have increased, so be prepared. Some are also holding rare berries, and by researching these berries' tag info you can get an idea of who has which berry. See if you can steal them with Thief before they are used in battle!

Also, the roaming Legendary Bird Trio now have a catch rate of 5 instead of 3 to make things a tiny bit less frustrating

Δ There are rumored 'prehistoric' Magikarp on Faraway Island, battle them a bit to see what is so special about them!

Δ Cave of Origin is now accessible permanently after fully completing the Jirachi event

---

Suggestions for changes to features/requirements for events or items are welcome.

Screenshots:

Planned Features and Ideas:

Δ Wild Double Battles (depends on if I can somehow port it to this game)

Δ EV/IV Display Screen (if I can get the programs on my computer to compile the ASM into the ROM)

Δ Eventually have the 'indefinite berry replanting' feature working, it would be an amazing thing to have

Δ Turning the Altering Cave into something more interesting someday?

Δ Maybe some additional graphics updates

Δ More Music Editing

More Day/Night-based song switches

Δ More time-based weather changes on maps

Δ Make it so Deoxys’ form can be changed via regular overworld script

There is already a way to switch between Speed and Normal, but I'm not sure right now if it can be done via scripting. Unless I expand the Dex, it may be limited to just switching between Speed and Normal form using a patch.

The credits list will be added to if more of others’ resources become involved in this game.
If there is anyone missing from this section whose resources have been used here, please let me know ASAP so I can give credit.

It's a bit annoying, but definitely not serious or game-breaking. There is currently no solution for this that I can properly use yet, but when I do then this should be an easy, easy fix.

Δ There is a feature implemented that is supposed to allow berries to replant themselves indefinitely but it is bugged. I have no idea why, and the game basically ignores it completely so it might as well not be there. It's also quite a pain to test, unfortunately.

Δ When Wally catches his Ralts at the beginning of the game, the battle background defaults to daytime when he exits the Pokéballs Menu. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to fix this one, I've tried but it's probably going to take a bit more than dealing with scripting commands.

Δ Some overworld sprites used to be incorrect and needed to be switched out, but I think I may have gotten them all now. If you find any more weirdly-placed sprites like that, let me know so I can fix it as soon as I can. It's not a game-breaking problem or anything, but it just looks kind of bad.

Δ Not a problem with the hack itself apparently, but: For those using a GBA emulator on Playstation Portable, the game may show an incorrect day of the week. In my case, the in-game day was behind the IRL day by one. For example, if it was Tuesday IRL, it said Monday in the game when I used the clock. This does not happen to me when I use VBA, however.

4/17/2017: Put in the rest of the customized Wild Battle Music feature, so that it actually works in-game now. Also gave the option for Tyranitar to have the Intimidate Ability, so it's not limited to Sand Stream. Also changed weather on a map to fix a tile priority issue. Updated Locations (Clefairy and Paras).

5/18/2017: Fixed a minor defect in the new Title Screen and altered it very slightly.

8/9/2017: Johto Pokémon from the National Dex now have their own battle theme, further upgrades planned for Lugia and Ho-oh theme(s). Events that required Hoenn Dex completion now have been dialed down to only needing either 150 (Lapras), 170 (Legendary Beasts), or 180 (Mewtwo). Also, the Link Stone is now called the Plasma Stone instead. Box Wallpaper variation hack applied, see a later post of mine in this thread for details. Planted berries should now stay planted and recycle themselves - no more 9-day limit! The EXP system hack I explained in a post later in this thread is now applied. New Locations Guide released as well.

8/11/2017: Got rid of an annoying bug I just found.

8/26/2017: Updated Locations Guide with info about Mirage Island.

5/12/2018: Finally, another HUGE update with several bug-fixes and loads of improvements and new features. PokéDex-based requirements have been overhauled again, be sure to read through the above sections because there have been many, many changes. For the updated encounter locations and Legendary/Event requirements, see the new Locations Guide.

The secret islands have gotten some updates this time around, especially Navel Rock. Those of you who enjoyed G/S/C may especially like this release of the game.

Jirachi and Celebi are finally available, and those who already completed their Hoenn Dex to meet the previously way steeper requirements get first dibs on Jirachi (and probably Celebi too. Heck, everything is probably available to you at this point). Great job!

5/14/2018: Holy hell, I just took another look at some of the Underwater maps, and they were outright terrible because of many, many misplaced tiles. I quickly fixed that mess (yes, it was painstaking) and everything is nice and clean now. Also:

!Δ! Bug fixed: For those transferring over from a regular Emerald save file, if you had already done the New Mauville sidequest you were not be able to catch Raikou, and some other events using the game's old flags wouldn't work if certain items were already picked up. I felt this had to be fixed ASAP before too many of you got the 5/12 update. Those events I mentioned were created at a time that I thought the game had no safely usable extra flags, and that had only recently changed. All events made after 8/11/2017 used newer flags, and now everything after this fix should be working. If anything is still going wrong with this, let me know and I'll update it again.

5/15/2018: Wow, this has been a frustrating experience but everything wrong with the events is FINALLY fixed. Someone was still having issues with a couple of events, and when I checked out the scripts there were crucial parts I missed in the last update. So, I went and thoroughly tested every single event I added and can now confirm that each one is working. Bear with me guys, I know it's probably annoying but I'm really trying here.

5/24/2018: !Δ! Bug fixed: The black-screen problem concerning Magikarp has now been fixed. There are several minor tile fixes on some maps in order to make them look better than they were.

Also, the Cave of Origin is now accessible permanently after the Jirachi event is completely finished (must talk to the girl in Mossdeep again and show her Jirachi).

NOTE: All new features I put into the game since last year's August update will now be added towards the bottom of the "Main Features" section above, from earliest to latest.

Downloads:

*Nearly all of the planned features are done, but do check back in once in a good while in case of updates/fixes!*

When applying a new update, use the patch with a clean ROM to avoid any potential issues, unless you are only applying an Add-On.

Make sure you have the latest release of both the game and the guide! The files in the folder have their release dates in their filenames.

To know which release of the game you have, go into your character's Room and read the booklet on the desk next to the PC.

Also, why not post this on Pokecommunity; there's usually a larger audience over there.

I know there is, but I was hoping to draw some more people to this forum for right now since it really needs more activity. I may consider also posting it over there really soon depending on what more I can find out about the situation. This site is supposed to be getting more traffic at some point anyway (honestly, I'm even not really sure how much it helps to only upload here) but for now I decided to just post it on PHO. Plus, some time ago I had said that this would be the first site I posted it on, so I figured I should keep my word.

Hey there, I'd like to report a "feature": In Rustboro City in the house to right of the Market is not a Pikachu (as referred to by the inhabitants) but a Lapras using Pikachu's cry and textbox.
Couldn't find anything else to complain about so far :-)

Edit: In Slateport's "Pokémon Fan Club" is a Mewtwo using Azumarill's cry and textbox (next to the Swagger-Tutor, who brags about his awesome Pokémon ^^)

Hey there, I'd like to report a "feature": In Rustboro City in the house to right of the Market is not a Pikachu (as referred to by the inhabitants) but a Lapras using Pikachu's cry and textbox.
Couldn't find anything else to complain about so far :-)

Edit: In Slateport's "Pokémon Fan Club" is a Mewtwo using Azumarill's cry and textbox (next to the Swagger-Tutor, who brags about his awesome Pokémon ^^)

Thanks for letting me know, I'll have these fixed in the next release. I had found these exact issues in other locations but apparently a few got by me.

UPDATE: Fixed. Also, "Pekachu" has been replaced with an old favorite.

Do you have a plan of Expanding Pokemon and Pokedex? and adding Mega Evolutions and Primal Reversion form?

Primal forms for Groudon/Kyogre (and the Mega for Rayquaza) might be added later in the expanded-feature version but it's low-priority until the hack becomes more advanced. I am not all that familiar with the newer games' mechanics, so I am sticking with what I know for now.

Otherwise, no Megas or Primals are planned for this one. It's meant to just be a more enhanced, complete and more challenging version of Emerald, which sticks to the original style before Diamond & Pearl were released. It's essentially a sort of Gen 1-3 all-in-one (except the other regions) with lots of bonus content that many wished was in the original R/S/E.

However, as mentioned in the description, I do plan to make a version of this hack with a slightly expanded PokéDex. That one is planned to have a select few from Gens 4 and up as special extras, and maybe even some non-Pokémon/uncatchable challenge battles. I know that many recent hacks are using tons of newer features (like phys/spec split, fairy type, etc.), but there are still many of us out there who prefer the earlier games' style. I did of course allow some exceptions, such as a balanced re-useable Pokéballs system as well as the TMs.

In the friendship rater's house (bottom left in Verdanturf) is another Lapras which (apparently) should have been a Pikachu. I don't know if you have fixed this error already, I'm sorry if that's the case.

Dang, you're right. I wonder how many more there are, since the ones that have been fixed so far IIRC are the Daycare Center sprites, the Azumarill in the Lilycove Dept. Store, the Pikachu in Rustboro, and the Azumarill in Slateport.

I'll fix this problem too and release another patch in a while. Thanks again.